The goal of this course is to critically evaluate recent trends with respect to devolution and democratization of resource management. These trends are in evidence for diverse resources, from conservation areas, to water governance, to joint forest management initiatives. It is also notable that these trends are also in evidence across geographic contexts, making comparative evaluation of resources and contexts a focus of interest for the course. In order to be able to evaluate these shifts we will begin with some theoretical interventions related to neoliberalism, as a dominant discourse and set of practices contributing to these trends. We will then turn to specific debates with respect to neoliberalized natures to think through how concepts, institutions and practices related to neoliberalism are being taken up, and engaged to theorize and address resource governance questions.

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Selected Problems in Administrative Law: Regulatory Reform
David Trubek, UW-Madison Voss-Bascom Professor of Law
Louise Trubek, UW-Madison Clinical Professor of Law

This seminar explores new approaches to regulation and their implications for law, policy, and public administration.  Critics of government regulation and the administrative state from the left and right have called for alternatives to conventional top-down, command and control regulatory systems.  New approaches involving devolution, public-private partnerships, negotiated regulation, network creation, coordination data collection, benchmarking, monitoring, feedback, and revisable standards are being tried out.  This type of "new governance" changes the way law is created and administered.  It restructures relationships among markets, government and the professions and re-opens the age-old issue of how best to maintain social and environmental values in a market economy.  In the US there have been experiments at federal, state, and county levels.  Similar developments can be found in the European Union and some global institutions.

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Trade, Competition and Governance in a Global Economy

This course provides an introduction to international trade policy. Its purpose is to provide students with an understanding of international trade theory, rules, politics and institutions and the major policy issues facing the global trading system. The first part of the course presents a treatment of the theory of international trade. The second part of the course deals with the World Trade Organization, and how U.S. trade policy is conducted. The third part considers major issues facing the trading system. 

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This is a history course designed to enrich our understanding of America's place in the world since the beginning of the twentieth century. Lectures, discussions, and readings will start with the aftermath of the war of 1898 and close with the "war against terrorism" at the dawn of the twenty-first century. We will define "foreign relations" broadly to explore the ways in which interactions with peoples and places identified as "foreign" transformed the nature of American society. The course will touch on issues of national power, territorial acquisition, market penetration, warfare, racial subjugation, class conflict, and gender subordination. We will study how America's foreign relations helped determine what it means to be "American." Situating the history of the United States in an international context we will learn how American debates about identity and power reflected and influenced events in distant venues. 

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Economic Growth and Development in Southeast Asia
Ian Coxhead, UW-Madison Professor of Agriculture and Applied Economics

This course examines economic development through the lens of the Southeast Asian experience. Students learn theoretic essentials in the areas of economic growth, international trade and development, as well as acquiring specific knowledge of SE Asian economic development experience.

Controversy about free trade, the new global economy, and for whom these things work has perhaps never been higher. Understanding these controversies requires delving into key questions about the forces, strategies, and policies that shape the growth and development of nations in the global economy. After a brief survey of the global economic landscape and the patterns of growth and living standards found within it, this course will first explore the basic economics of international trade.  The second part of the course will then try to understand the forces that shape the endowments of people, skill, capital and technology that basic trade theory takes as given.  The third and final part of the course will focus squarely on income distribution in the global economy, examining how the forces of growth and trade are shaping the distribution of income within and between countries. Throughout the entire course, we will maintain a focus on the role of the government and public policy in shaping the growth and development of a nation.

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International Dimensions of Environmental Justice

 

For the past four decades, debates about international development have been increasingly focusing on environmental issues. The following question became increasingly important: How can we sustain economic development, especially in poor, third world nations, protect the integrity of the global environment, and avoid pollution and ecosystem degradation, all at the same time? On the face of it, this question seems to be harmless and progressive. It mobilizes the international community in an effort to eradicate global problems of "underdevelopment" (poverty and hunger most prominently) while at the same time protecting the environment for future generations. However, upon further inquiry, this question does not seem as innocent as once believed. If nothing else, it takes as unproblematic both assertions: that "economic development" articulates a promise for peace; and that "environmental vulnerability" constitutes a looming threat. Even though the question of how best to achieve developmental goals while preserving the environment will constitute the background for our readings and discussions, our aim will be to unpack these concepts and place them in their historical and political contexts, examine the images they invoke, and critique the assumptions they build upon. 
 
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International Trade and Finance

The first and major part of the course explores the theoretical foundations of International Trade, focusing on why nations trade and what do they trade, and in what sense international trade is beneficial to trading countries. Current policy issues will be examined to demonstrate the usefulness as well as the limitations of the theory. We will also study how trade policies can be used to pursue national or global objectives. The second part of the course will cover selected topics in International Finance.

The Politics of Global Financial Relations

The purpose of this seminar is to explore the ways in which the globalization of finance over the last three decades has influenced –and been influenced by –international relations and domestic politics. Topics include: the effects of international financial integration on national policymaking; international institutions and global financial governance; global finance and the developing world; financial crises; exchange rates; and foreign direct investment. Along the way, we will discuss a number of important theoretical issues in the study of international relations, including the role of international institutions, the interplay between politics and economics, and the role of the nation-state.

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The first and major part of the course explores the theoretical foundations of International Trade, focusing on why nations trade and what do they trade, in what sense international trade is beneficial to trading countries , the effect of different trade policy instruments and
international trade agreements.  Current policy issues will be examined to demonstrate the usefulness as well as the limitations of the theory.  The second part of the course will be devoted to topics in International Finance: balance of payments, foreign exchange market.